Parallel
by Kella Toh
Summary: Someway, somewhere she knew it could have ended differently. / Hinata-centric AU angst. Slight NaruHina. /


**A/N: I am in a very somber mood. I seem to miss things that are never there. Please, enjoy this angsty fic of Hinata. Let me know what you think, I love reviews.**

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><p><strong><em>Parallel<em>**

_Someway, somewhere, she knew there was another way in which it could have ended differently. / Hinata-centric AU Angst. /_

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><p>.<p>

Inside a once-crowded two-bedroom apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan is a 20-something girl with an open suitcase. She has long dark hair, and a few strands of ebony poke out from the side of her messy bun. The striped, baggy maternity shirt and loose jeans reflect her gray, somber mood.

Hinata takes a deep breath and looks around their - _his_ - bedroom. The few strands of light that manage to peek in from the blinds pan across the space. It feels so barren to her now that she's taken her little bursts of design with her. It's reverted back to the cold bachelor pad it once was.

Like she was never even there in the first place.

She hoped it would be that way, at least. Hinata had packed three suitcases full of her belongings, two being already at her cousin's apartment in Brooklyn. She had planned it all so she'd be there when he wouldn't be. Her boss was kind enough to give her some time off (to 'sort things out', she'd said), so she used it to her advantage.

That way, it worked out in that she wouldn't make him watch her go. He'd stare after her with the hardened, opaque blue eyes he got when he was sad and tell her it was a mistake. That it could _work _between them, and they could still be together. And she was tired of all the lies and deceit both of them had already caused.

She was so deathly afraid of coming back. If coming back to him, at all, she would never enter the same apartment. She missed the baby crib they had set up, and the nursery they had planned to paint. It hurt so badly, whether she loved him anymore or not didn't really matter.

Biting her lip, she stalked over to their - _his _- nightstand. With calm, cold fingers she examined a picture of them together. They were smiling widely, his arm around her waist and their cheeks touching from being so close. A New Year's banner hung in the background, grainy from either the photographer's poor skills or lack of soberness.

They shared a few friends, couples, that would come over occasionally for wine and talk of family (and the skirting around of the future). First it had started with his best friend, Sasuke, and his girlfriend Sakura (whom she knew briefly in highschool at one point). Then, it led to the pink-haired girl's friend, Ino, and her many excuses for boyfriends. It was like a small, horribly distant tree that she had no part being a branch in. Now she had broken off in some freak lightning storm.

He had options, she made sure of that. Sasuke had a distant gleam in his eyes (they said he'd run off once before), and she'd predicted his and Sakura's fall to be any day now. Ino would maybe make a good girlfriend, and Sakura certainly a good wife. The pink-haired nurse was his previous romantic pursuit, and a track once traveled already has rails.

They were both gorgeous, if not a bit torn from their pasts (although so is he, really). If it came down to it, he'd find someone else. And maybe so would she, eventually.

In her cousin's neighborhood, she could would be closer to her father (for better or for worse), and a couple childhood friends.

There was Shino, the introverted boy she would always parter up with in school. He lived in the apartments across the street. Although he was rarely home due to work, they could squeeze in some lunch get-togethers. He ran the anthropology section at a Kid's museum somewhere close.

Then there was Kiba, the brash and loud boy she'd play with when she still lived in a larger flat with her parents and cousins. He'd certainly grown a lot from the scraggly boy that gave her lice one time. Word was he was helping manage a small veterinary school in Queens.

Of course, there was the always-sturdy Neji and his wife, Tenten. They'd gotten married after they got out of the air force, and started their own dojo under their friend Lee's tailor-shop. Business was good, it seemed, because they lived in a gigantic apartment, with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, and a gorgeous kitchen that neither of them used much. The nursery they'd never use was still sitting comfortably in the corner of the flat, which made her all the more sad to be going there (especially in the situation she was in).

Both'd be supporting to her no matter what. Not to mention her father, and endless collection of extensive (yet somehow close) family members. She'd made a few friends over the years, too. Kurenai was certainly more than a boss, and Gai was more than a landlord.

Someway, somehow, she'd make it.

But as she sets the picture back down, and finally snaps her suitcase shut, she steals one last look out the window. Outside the concrete jungle of the city, she wonders if it could have ended (maybe even started) differently. Maybe, if she was in another world, with another life...

Before she can complete her whim of a thought, though, a horn blares from downstairs because the _damn police_ think Tenten's _parking_ so Hinata needs to hurry her ass up. Shaking herself, she runs quickly to her remaining belongings, and rushes out the door. Making sure the lights are all turned off, and the pink note on the front desk is still there, she leaves.

With the click of a door she's gone, leaving a million and one eternities behind.

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><p><strong>AN: Hm? What did you think? Too sad? Too short? Me, too.**

**~Want to know the backstory?**

**::You can imagine it any way you want, but I had thought of it as Hinata and Naruto being live-in boyfriend and girlfriend, and her getting pregnant. There was a lot of trouble in the relationship during the pregnancy, and she lost the baby. There was a fight, and she decided to leave. /3 Whether they get back together or not is up to you.**

**If you would like to see more like this for other kunoichi, let me know. I would be delighted to write more. That is not sarcasm. (Neither is that.)**


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